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How does string motion affect the sound?

These notes were in the last 3 pages of the old "brown catalog" first printed about 1982.

When the pick releases the string it causes two ripples to move along the string, one toward the bridge and the other toward the nut or fret.

The ripples are reflected from the nearest fixed end of the string then travel along the string to the opposite fixed end where they are reflected again.

Viewed along the string the motion is an elliptical path that changes in orientation as its amplitude decays. The complex motion is equivalent to a sum of harmonics that varies during the attack and decay of a note.

For example, the fundamental of the note is at 100Hz; its harmonics occur at multiples of that frequency. The fundamental of the octave is at 200Hz, twice the frequency of the lower note.

Every harmonic of the octave agrees with every other harmonic of the lower note.

The fundamental of the fifth above the note is at 150Hz, 3/2 the frequency of the lower note.

Every other harmonic of the fifth agrees with every third harmonic of the lower note.

The small circles show the harmonics in agreement.

In acoustic instruments the string motion is coupled to the soundboard by the bridge.

Only those components of the string motion that can move the bridge up and down will be amplified (because the bridge cannot move sideways - Figure 3).

This lack of symmetry in the coupling of string to the soundboard contributes strongly to the complex tone quality of plucked acoustic instruments.

Our Hi-A label was derived from “high asymmetry" and the ability of our polyphonic designs to sense string motion in the same way as the bridge of an acoustic guitar.

The resonances of the acoustic body also contribute to the tone quality of the instrument by enhancing some of the harmonics of each note